


There’s something wrong with Peter

by Grace_d



Series: Short Stories for Small Spiders [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Child Loss, Coping, Freeform, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Infinity Gems, Loss, Prose Poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22080310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grace_d/pseuds/Grace_d
Summary: There’s something wrong with Peter. They don’t see it at first, no one does, in the relief of possibility. May notices first, and she's right, as Tony watches, Peter's here, but he's not.But if Peter's not here, where is he?
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Short Stories for Small Spiders [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1423630
Comments: 12
Kudos: 56





	There’s something wrong with Peter

**There’s something wrong with Peter.**

  
They don’t see it at first.  
no one does,  
in the relief of possibility.  
Crowded around Tony’s bedside, as pain and the voices of infinity whisper to him,  
his lover, his friends, his team.  
“We understand Tony,”  
they say,  
and take his good hand.  
“I would have done the same.  
For a single new breath that he could take.  
We’ve met that boy, like the morning sun, like echoes of youth and a bright puff of spring.”  
Warm and whole, safe and sound,  
A gift beside Tony’s bed.  
“That boy.  
He’s magic.”

  
May notices it first.  
“He’s not coping.”  
She whispers through the phone,  
“At first I thought it was the riot of it all, the shock, that his mind had gone and tucked away,  
a happy medium, an in between of calm.”  
“But it doesn’t shift.”  
“It doesn’t move.”  
“He sleeps so soundly,  
always with a small smile,  
curled up in quiet, hours on end.”  
“There’s no Spider-Man, even though I’m almost relieved, he’ll never be so far from me again,  
I’m worried there’s no Peter,  
frightened half to death.”  
Tony.  
Help me.” 

  
The next visit,  
Tony looks closely,  
Peers into his eyes, draws him in,  
Peter is there, his forehead cool as Tony presses a kiss, his child present right under his arm,  
“I’ve been sleeping real well Tony,” Peter promises,  
“The softest dreams.”  
But Tony sees as the day drags on,  
May was right.  
Mothers always are.  
Everything is level,  
A well of calm, a smile teases but never breaks,  
There’s no riotous laughter, no silly jokes, the tilt of his head remains the same,  
almost as though Peter listens to something they can not hear.  
Peter’s there but also,  
not.  
Peter is beyond. 

  
“The doctor,”  
Tony suggests.  
Peter agrees with a shrug and that same smile.  
They all go together, fingers wound tightly between May and Tony, cheeks smiling but eyes of worry,  
As though it was cancer,  
and not just,  
strange.  
“He’s perfect,”  
the doctor concludes,  
“and it’s concerning. No one is perfect.”  
“Peter always was,” May’s voice a whisper, “perfectly imperfect, my darling, menace child.”  
They don’t know what to do,  
with his absence of self.  
“It’s okay,  
if you think I’m not right.”  
Peter says.  
“I’m sorry.”  


They lie awake,  
hands still entwined,  
in the bed of May and Ben.  
Tony wonders if once, a young Peter would have crawled between, his small body warm,  
comforted by his makeshift parents,  
from the things that they fear.  
But now,  
Peter slumbers alone,  
still with that one same smile  
in a soft nest of child’s blankets,  
and the last two lay awake, staring up at the ceiling, bodies shaking in silent wordless empty,  
not looking in the shadows that crawl,  
The door is open.  
May prays.  
Peter sleeps. 

  
As dawn start to rise,  
Tony dozes,  
And dreams, or remembers,  
the soft hum of a million consequences, of twisting reality, and a judgement of worth,  
and the words of satisfaction,  
Not you,  
him.  
“There’s something wrong with Peter,”  
May whispers into the night  
and it releases Tony with a gasp.  
The pit of eternity beyond his vision, he runs through a swirl of ash, and he hears it so clear,  
the lingering promise,  
a curse.  
Peter fades.  


Infinity begins.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all, I'm really not sure what this is! I went back and forth about this a lot whether I should write it into a full story, and I still might.  
> Thank you SO MUCH to ferretshark for doing a preread and edit with me!!   
> Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you thought of it, it's very different for me.


End file.
